Reflections In a Hoophouse

April 19th 2009

Anna stabilizing the end wall

As Anna and I were laying out the hoophouse we were trying to remember when we built them last year. Anna thought it was earlier in the season and I of course thought differently. It turns out she was right. (I would use an exclamation point at the end of the last statement but she usually is right about these things.)

Once Jan and Chris helped us start to assemble the hoophouses we started to reflect on the past year and how much further down the hill we have progressed. The assembly went smoothly and we will turn the chickens out to graze down the cover crop and weeds inside the structure.

As soon as we went inside I looked through dated pictures from last season and we were reminiscing over the past projects, the difference in the landscape and timing of the blossoms on the trees. It looks like we are a week behind last year as far as growing degree days and the calendar year. Comparing events like the blooming of flowers and stages of buds and blossoms on a lilac tree are good measures of growing degree days. When I compile enough information over the years, I will use this tool to determine when to expect certain pests to be a problem and to time plantings.

April 18th 2008

Snow on the hoophouse